For the Blue Man Army, Recruitment Is on the Rise

By LOLA OGUNNAIKE

Published: October 10, 2005

In a spare rehearsal space just north of Houston Street in Lower Manhattan, Kuba Pierzchalski was trying to make a masterpiece. In his left hand he rotated a white canvas; in his right, a giant bottle of electric yellow paint. Rather than reach for a brush, however, Mr. Pierzchalski opened his mouth, took a deep breath and poured the yellow goop in. Seconds later, the paint came shooting out of his mouth, landing on the canvas in a bright, sloppy swirl.

''Not bad,'' said Michael Dahlen, his instructor, eyeing the slowly drying work. ''But let's try it again and this time really spit it out.''

This is Blue Man Group boot camp, where sane adults are encouraged to behave like crazed kindergartners. When not spewing paint, these men catch small water balloons in their mouths, bang the melody to Madonna's ''Like a Virgin'' on calibrated drums or learn to communicate with their eyes (Blue Men don't speak). It's an intense five-week rehearsal and, though it looks like play, this is anything but a well-orchestrated romper room for these future men in blue. ''It's a grueling process,'' Mr. Dahlen said. ''These aren't skills that people hone in their everyday lives.''

What began as an experimental performance-art trio 14 years ago in the East Village has slowly grown into a small global empire. There are now ''Blue Man Group'' shows in Manhattan, Chicago, Boston, Toronto and Berlin. Today, Blue Man Theater, a 1,760-seat complex, is to open at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, where the group has previously performed at the Luxor hotel. ''The stage at the Venetian is more than five times the size of the entire theater in New York,'' Matt Goldman, a founder of Blue Man Group said. He was referring to the 298-seat Astor Place Theater where ''Blue Man Group'' has played since 1991. ''It's massive.'' Next month, the Blue Men will begin playing on the West End in London.

All this expansion has meant that dozens of new Blue Men must be recruited and trained. In the past year, casting calls have been held in Montreal, Seattle, Los Angeles and Orlando. This month, more than 50 hopefuls attended an open audition at the Astor Place Theater. Some wanted to play in the show's band. Most were willing to be bald, blue and mute.

''I've been wanting to shave my head for a long time, so this will be a great catalyst,'' joked John Allen Dzuriak, a dance studio owner with a winning smile and thinning hair.

In August Mr. Pierzchalski was one of six European men picked to train in the United States for the London company; those six were eventually cut to three.

All those chosen had to fulfill a height requirement of 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet 1 inch. ''You have to have a common exoskeletal physicality,'' Mr. Goldman said. ''You can't ever look at a Blue Man and think there's the tall one, there's the short one, there's the overly curvaceous one, because all of those things are supposed to disappear.''

Mr. Pierzchalski recalled being asked to share an interesting story at his second audition in London. He then had to tell the same story again using only mime. He was asked to tell the story for a third time with just his eyes. ''It sounds impossible to do,'' Mr. Pierzchalski said, ''but I did it.''

At the start of their boot camp this summer, the men were given thick binders filled with notes on everything from the history of the show to character development. Though it is not readily apparent, each Blue Man has a distinct personality. ''The right character is excitable, almost doglike,'' Mr. Dahlen said. ''He's pretty quick on the uptake. The center guy is more by the book, but he read the wrong manual, the 2003 version in 2005, and the left guy, he's the trickster, he usually seems to have a little something up his sleeve.''

During the 10-to-7 workday, the men practice catching marshmallows with their mouths and work on achieving the Blue Man's signature look: wide-eyed innocence.

''Remember to be vulnerable,'' Mr. Dahlen said, as Callum Grant, a 22-year-old actor from Scotland, did his best to look like a 3-year-old entering Toys ''R'' Us for the first time.

Feeling adventurous, this reporter decided to learn to use her mouth to create what the group calls ''spin art.'' Turning a black woman into a Blue Man, however, would prove no easy feat. The smell of the organic paint, which has an egg base, was nauseating. And the paint's taste -- well, sour milk comes close. Mr. Pierzchalski compared it to Lugol, a special fluid he had to drink while growing up in Poland. ''It was the time of Chernobyl and that syrup was supposed to help kill radiation,'' he said, ''so the paint reminds me of my childhood.'' Mr. Pierzchalski said he often has to burp after performances.

Through the years there have been nearly 80 Blue Men -- and one Blue Woman -- and turnover is low, Mr. Goldman said. ''We still have five of the first seven Blue Men we hired,'' he said proudly. He could not say exactly why so many have been interested in going cobalt, but he was certain about one thing: ''No one gets into this to be a star.''

Blue Man Group's founding members have been reluctant to explain their characters' back stories. Are they aliens? Ghosts? Giant, mute Smurfs in need of Rogaine? Chris Wink, a co-founder, described the Blue Man as ''paint from an Yves Klein canvas that just popped off and is now enjoying the world.''

Long ago Mr. Wink, Mr. Goldman and Phil Stanton, another original cast member, would get all done up and sit quietly at local bars. The reaction was at times puzzled, but usually positive. ''People appreciated a moment of surrealism in their monotonous day,'' Mr. Wink said.

But just as the East Village and much of New York has become a tourist-friendly adult amusement park, so has the Blue Man Group evolved from a fixture of the avant-garde to part of the mainstream. Starving artists the founding members are not. In Las Vegas alone, the group could potentially bring in more than $70 million a year in gross revenues, Robert G. Goldstein, the president of the Venetian, estimated.

Still, the Blue Men are quick to maintain that they have not sold out. While Blue Men have appeared at the Grammys, on late-night talk shows and most recently at last month's Emmys (they also figure regularly in plots of ''Arrested Development'' on Fox), the group has been careful about lending its image to products. Their decision to appear in the popular Intel commercials took months of negotiations.

''You have no idea how many requests we get,'' Mr. Goldman said. ''Hundreds and hundreds a year. It's always some ad guy that's like, 'We're coming out with blue M&M's, let's get the Blue Men!''' Mr. Goldman then grew serious for a moment. ''We want to be creating as the Blue Man Group for decades,'' he said. ''You can't do that if you sell the brand down the river.''

Decades? Guess the hunt for more Blue Men will continue.

Photo: The Blue Man Group is expanding its realm to a new Las Vegas theater. (Photo by Ken Howard/Blue Man Productions)(pg. E1); Michael Dahlen watches as Kuba Pierzchalski tries to spew a painting. (Photo by Ting-Li Wang/The New York Times)(pg. E7)